Empathy and Moral Development

Abstract

Contemporary theories have generally focused on either the behavioral, cognitive or emotional dimensions of prosocial moral development. In this volume, these three dimensions are brought together while providing the first comprehensive account of prosocial moral development in children. The main concept is empathy - one feels what is appropriate for another person's situation, not one's own. Hoffman discusses empathy's role in five moral situations. The book's focus is empathy's contribution to altruism and compassion for others in physical, psychological, or economic distress. Also highlighted are the psychological processes involved in empathy's interaction with certain parental behaviors that foster moral internalization in children and the psychological processes involved in empathy's relation to abstract moral principles such as caring and distributive justice. This important book is the culmination of three decades of study and research by a leading figure in the area of child and developmental psychology.

Empathy and conflict resolution in friendship relations among adolescents

“…Empathy is a multicomponent phenomenon, encompassing traits (i.e., empathic tendencies of an individual), states (i.e., momentary empathic experiences elicited in concrete situations), interpersonal behaviors (e.g., helping or comforting) and empathy-related processes producing empathic states and behaviors [Davis, 1996;Duan and Hill, 1996;Hoffman, 2000]. Davis' [1996] organizational model identifies empathic traits as antecedents, which have the potential to influence empathy-related processes, experiences and interpersonal behaviors.…”

Empathy and Its Modulation in a Virtual Human

“…While in [18] and [14] only the intensity of an empathic emotion is modulated, we also modulate its related emotion category in our model. In this regard, we follow Hoffman's claim [11] that an empathic response need not be a close match to the affect experienced by the other, but can be any emotional reaction compatible with the other's situation. Furthermore, in previous research, evaluations have been based on either two conditions, non-empathic vs. empathic (e.g., [18]) or on three conditions, non-empathic/emotional, empathic, and noncongruent empathic/emotional (e.g., [14] and [1]).…”

“…According to Hoffman [11], an empathic response to the other's emotion should be more appropriate to the other's situation than to one's own and need not be a close match to the affect experienced by the other, but can be any emotional reaction compatible with the other's situation. Further, according to the thesis of the dimensional theory [19], emotions are related to one another in a systematic manner and their relationships can be represented in a dimensional model.…”

“…Within the empathy facilitation region, the modulated empathic emotion empEmo t,mod represents an empathic response that is compatible with the other's situation (cf. [11]). Thus, the virtual human is allowed to react with an emotion from a different emotion category (but compatible) with the other's emotion.…”

The Mediating Role of Gratitude in the Influence of Children' and Adolescents' Empathy and Guilt on Helping Behavior

“…반면, 죄책 감은 수치심의 병리적 특성과는 달리 자신의 행동을 통제 혹 은 조절하려는 성향을 포함한다 (Tangney & Fischer, 1995;Tangney, 1998). 뿐만 아니라 죄책감 수준이 높을수록 덜 공 격적이며, 부정적인 결과에 대한 보상 행동을 시도하는 경향 이 많은 것으로 나타났다 (Champman et al, 1987;Eisenberg & Fabes, 1991Tangney, 1991;Zahn-Waxler et al, 1992;Eisenberg, 2000;Hoffman, 2000). …”